8 major Google algorithm updates, explained

Almost every day, Google introduces changes to its ranking algorithm. Some are tiny tweaks; others seriously shake up the SERPs. This cheat sheet will help you make sense of the most important algo changes and penalties rolled out in the recent years, with a brief overview and SEO advice on each. 

But before we start, let’s do something fun. What if you could see which of the updates impacted your organic traffic, and in what way? Surprise surprise, you can, with a tool called Rank Tracker. All you need to do is launch Rank Tracker and create a project for your site. Then, click the Update Traffic button in Rank Tracker’s top menu, and enter your Google Analytics credentials to sync your account with the tool. In the lower part of your Rank Tracker dashboard, switch to Organic Traffic:

Did any of your traffic changes correlate with Google’s updates? Let’s find out what each of the updates was about and how to adjust.

1. Panda

Launch date: February 24, 2011
Hazards: Duplicate, plagiarized or thin content; user-generated spam; keyword stuffing

How it works: Panda assigns a so-called “quality score” to web pages; this score is then used as a ranking factor. Initially, Panda was a filter rather than part of Google’s ranking algo, but in January 2016, it was officially incorporated into the core algorithm. Panda rollouts have become more frequent, so both penalties and recoveries now happen faster.

How to adjust: Run regular site checks for content duplication, thin content and keyword stuffing. To do that, you’ll need a site crawler, like SEO PowerSuite’s Website Auditor.

To check for instances of external content duplication, use a plagiarism checker like Copyscape.

If you have an e-commerce site and cannot afford to have 100 percent unique content, try to use original images where you can, and utilize user reviews to make product descriptions stand out from the crowd. For more tips on content auditing, jump to this six-step guide.

2. Penguin

Launch date: April 24, 2012
Hazards: Spammy or irrelevant links; links with over-optimized anchor text

How it works: Google Penguin’s objective is to down-rank sites whose links it deems manipulative. Since late 2016, Penguin has been part of Google’s core algorithm; unlike Panda, it works in real time.

How to adjust: Monitor your link profile’s growth and run regular audits with a backlink checker like SEO SpyGlass. In the tool’s Summary dashboard, you’ll find a progress graph for your link profile’s growth. Look out for any unusual spikes: those are reason enough to look into the backlinks you’ve unexpectedly gained.

The stats that we know Penguin takes into account are incorporated into SEO SpyGlass’s Penalty Risk formula. To check for penalty risks, go to the Linking Domains dashboard, navigate to the Link Penalty Risks tab, select your links, and click Update Penalty Risk. When the check is complete, check with the Penalty Risk column, and make sure to look into every link with a score over 50 percent.

3. Hummingbird

Launch date: August 22, 2013
Hazards: Keyword stuffing; low-quality content

How it works: Hummingbird helps Google better interpret search queries and provide results that match searcher intent (as opposed to the individual terms within the query). While keywords continue to be important, Hummingbird makes it possible for a page to rank for a query even if it doesn’t contain the exact words the searcher entered. This is achieved with the help of natural language processing that relies on latent semantic indexing, co-occurring terms and synonyms.

How to adjust: Expand your keyword research and focus on concepts, not keywords. Carefully research related searches, synonyms and co-occurring terms. Great sources of such ideas are Google Related Searches and Google Autocomplete. You’ll find all of them incorporated into Rank Tracker’s Keyword Research module.

Use these insights to understand your audience’s language better and diversify your content. By creating comprehensive content that satisfies searcher intent, you’ll win both in terms of engagement and SEO. We’ll look at comprehensiveness in more detail later in this post when we discuss RankBrain.

4. Pigeon

Launch date: July 24, 2014 (US); December 22, 2014 (UK, Canada, Australia)
Hazards: Poor on- and off-page SEO

How it works: Pigeon affects those searches in which the user’s location plays an important part. The update created closer ties between the local algorithm and the core algorithm: traditional SEO factors are now used to rank local results.

How to adjust: Invest effort into on- and off-page SEO. A good starting point is running an on-page analysis with WebSite Auditor. The tool’s Content Analysis dashboard will give you a good idea about the aspects of on-page optimization you need to focus on.

A good way to start with off-page SEO is getting listed in relevant business directories. Not only do those act like backlinks, helping your site rank; they rank well in Google themselves. You can easily find quality directories and reach out to webmasters asking to get listed with LinkAssistant.

Just click Look for Prospects, select Directories, and enter your keywords. It’s a good idea to specify category keywords plus your location (e.g., “dentist Denver”). In a moment, the tools will return a list of relevant directories in your niche, along with the site owner’s email addresses.

5. Mobile

Launch date: April 21, 2015
Hazards: Lack of a mobile version of the page; poor mobile usability

How it works: Google’s Mobile Update (aka Mobilegeddon) ensures that mobile-friendly pages rank at the top of mobile search, while pages not optimized for mobile are filtered out from the SERPs or seriously down-ranked.

How to adjust: Go mobile and focus on speed and usability. Google’s mobile-friendly test will help you see which aspects of your page’s mobile version need to be improved. The test in integrated into WebSite Auditor so you can check your pages’ mobile friendliness quickly. You’ll find it in Content Analysis > Page Audit, under the Technical factors tab.

6. RankBrain

Launch date: October 26, 2015
Hazards: Lack of query-specific relevance features; shallow content; poor UX

How it works: RankBrain is part of Google’s Hummingbird algorithm. It is a machine learning system that helps Google understand the meaning behind queries, and serve best-matching search results in response to those queries. Google calls RankBrain the third most important ranking factor. While we don’t know the ins and outs of RankBrain, the general opinion is that it identifies relevance features for web pages ranking for a given query, which are basically query-specific ranking factors.

How to adjust: Optimize content for relevance and comprehensiveness with the help of competitive analysis. With the help of WebSite Auditor‘s TF-IDF tool, you can discover relevant terms and concepts used by a large number of your top-ranking competitors: those are a brilliant way to diversify your content.

7. Possum

Launch date: September 1, 2016
Hazards: Tense competition in your target location

How it works: The Possum update ensured that local results vary more depending on the searcher’s location: the closer you are to a business’s address, the more likely you are to see it among local results. Possum also resulted in greater variety among results ranking for very similar queries, like “dentist denver” and “dentist denver co.” Interestingly, Possum also gave a boost to businesses located outside the physical city area.

How to adjust: Expand your keyword list and do location-specific rank tracking. Local businesses now need to be targeting more keywords than they used to, due to the volatility Possum brought into the local SERPs. As you check your rankings, make sure you’re doing this from your target location (or, better yet, a bunch of them). You can do this in Rank Tracker under Preferences > Preferred Search Engines. Click Add Custom next to Google. Next, specify your preferred location — you can make it as specific as a street address.

8. Fred

Launch date: March 8, 2017
Hazards: Thin, affiliate-heavy or ad-centered content

How it works: The latest of Google’s confirmed updates, Fred targets websites that violate Google’s webmaster guidelines. The majority of affected sites are blogs with low-quality posts that appear to be created mostly for the purpose of generating ad revenue.

How to adjust: Review Google Search Quality Guidelines and watch out for thin content. If you show ads, make sure the pages they are found on are high-quality and offer relevant, ample information. This is basically it: Don’t try to trick Google into thinking your page is about something when it really is a gateway page full of affiliate links. Most publishers make money off ads, and that’s totally legit as long as you are not cheating.

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Benefits of SEO

 1. The Results are Low Cost (In Comparison to Adwords and PPC)

Organic listings are essentially free. When you are listed at the top, you don’t need to pay per click or allocate a budget for advertising, one of the main benefits of SEO is that it is the gift that keeps on giving. With a little bit of effort (and some money upfront to pay for SEO costs) you can watch your website get consistent traffic. You don’t have to pay $10 for every person who clicks on your ad. Unlike paid ads, your traffic will not drop to nothing when it stops. SEO gets rid of the need to have thousands of ads across the web.

2. Definite Increase in Traffic

With Analytics and reporting tools, you’ll see a clear cut increase in traffic. This is a definite way to maximize your business efforts. SEO will give you results (not immediately but rather quickly) and as soon as you start your SEO efforts, traffic will increase at a steady rate. Using tools to track traffic to your site you can clearly watch as more people visit your site and sales go through the roof.

3. Higher Brand Credibility, People Trust Google

People trust that the first listing in google is a reputable company, by doing SEO, your website becomes THE brand name. You’re the guy the competitors want to beat. The further back you are in rankings on Google the more people are skeptical about your website. If google has a spot dedicated to you at the top especially if it is a top tier listing with other subpages listed below the main home page it gives your website credibility that no ad can top. Ads can often be seen as annoying and many people have ad blockers installed on their browsers.

4. Better ROI (Return on Investment) Than Normal Ads

When you buy 1000 visitors from a paid ad, 2% of those visitors might convert into a sale. When you get 1000 clicks from SEO, 4% of those visitors will convert into a sale, leading to a better return on investment. This higher conversion rate is just another one of the benefits of SEO that cannot be matched by any other form of marketing. Google searches actually get people who searched for the tag in your website. These people are actually looking for your product. Ads can be from anyone. Many people may mis-click on an ad. A hit from google is much more valuable over a hit from an ad.

5. Your Competitors Are Doing It

SEO is a rising field and it is gaining ground. More people are starting to realize that the benefits of SEO are extremely high. Your competitors know this and are starting to take advantage of it. If your competitors are using it then they will appear before you on Google and get all those hits that can lead to sales before your website will. Even if your site offers better services or prices. Hiring a better SEO company or investing in a skilled SEO Staff could be exactly what your company needs to rank above your competitors in the google rankings.

6. Take Your Business to the Next Level

SEO can bring it thousands upon thousands of visitors to your website a day. This may put your company in a position of needing to expand to a larger web server to accommodate the traffic and sales to your website. Your customers may recommend you a product or service that they were looking for when they visited your website. SEO is a really great investment for your company and could be what you need to take it to the next level.

7. 250 Million Websites on the Web, SEO Makes You Stand Out

There are well over 250 million websites on the web. It can be pretty hard to make a name for yourself with that many out there. Especially if your product or service is highly competitive. Using SEO will make your brand stand out from the rest and can easily be the boost that you need to see your sales go through the roof.

8. 60% Of Clicks Go to the First Result

This means that only 40% of clicks are left for the second through the millionth result on google for the keyword. Securing that top spot on Google is a sure fire way to gain thousands upon thousands of visitors. SEO is certainly the tool needed to gain that top spot as well. For a small up front investment you are looking at potentially millions of sales.

9. You’ll Have Access to Data

What data you may ask? You get customer data. You can discover new products to expand to by looking at keyword data and seeing what people are searching the most for. You can use this to your advantage and find a high search volume keyword with low competitiveness and although that may be hard to find it has the potential to bring in thousands of sales per month to your website. Customer data is extremely valuable in this business and is not that hard to come by with the right tools. Manipulating it to your advantage can be exponentially beneficial for your business.

10. The Results are Permanent 

Unlike advertisements the affects of SEO are permanent. They don’t suddenly stop if you stop paying for them. Of course you will need a little upkeep to maintain that top 1st spot ranking, but if you can get that top spot chances are it will be quite difficult for it to get taken away.

Can You Do Your Own SEO?

Of course. Anyone that says otherwise isn’t being truthful. We provide Free SEO Reports so you can start increasing your rankings yourself. Our reports are 10-20 pages long and have dozens of actionable tips so you can do your own SEO. Search engine optimization has many benefits, but we know it can be costly at first. If you’re not ready to let an agency handle your SEO, then let us help you out for free.

Let us E-mail you a free report, watch how fast your rankings increase. Once your traffic and profits goes up, give us a call and we can show you what professional SEO can do.

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What Is the Difference Between White Hat and Black Hat SEO?

Chances are you’ve heard about HBO’s latest hit, Westworld. However, for those of you haven’t, here’s a quick refresher (sans spoilers): The series is based on a 1973 film of the same name that features a futuristic wild west theme park which caters to the dark desires of its wealthy guests. It’s inhabited by highly realistic – and intelligent – robots, and their interactions with the guests allow the show to explore some moral gray areas.

When entering the park, guests pick out their own outfits complete with the choice between a white hat or a black hat – a not-so-subtle nod to whether or not they’ll choose to play the hero or villain later on.

Marketers face a similar choice when outlining their inbound marketing strategy, specifically when it comes to generating traffic through links. Like guests that enter Westworld, marketers must choose between white hat or black hat link building strategies to elevate their content marketing efforts.

In its simplest form, white hat tactics emphasize a strategy that follows Google’s rules – particularly in terms of quality content. Black hat tactics take a complete 180, opting for a more aggressive approach that isn’t afraid to bend the rules.

Each strategy has its advantages and disadvantages, and this post will take a closer look at each tactic and help you determine whether you’ll want to use a white hat or black hat approach when navigating the wild, wild web.

What Is Black Hat SEO?

Let’s start with the more villainous of the two. Marketers who practice black hat SEO are the gun-slinging outlaws of the internet because they rely on rule-breaking techniques to earn higher rankings. Some black hat strategies include the following:

• Unrelated keywords: Adding keywords that have no connection to your content is a red flag for search engines because of how unnatural it looks. Say you’re working on a site dedicated to fireplaces. Adding a sentence like, “Ryan Gosling would use our fireplace during his trip home to Canada” sounds great but really has nothing to do with how your product could benefit your target audience. Instead, it uses an unrelated celebrity to bait search engines – a big no-no.
• Content automation (in the body text or the comment section): We can all recognize a bot comment instantly, and although this text contains one or two keywords that will help the URL rank higher, it’s randomly generated and makes absolutely no sense to the reader – and search engines pick up on this. Below is a great example I received on a previous post on another site:

• Doorway pages: These are essentially fake pages that are overloaded with keywords that make them easier for search engines to find. However, once clicked, they automatically redirect visitors to a separate page and are therefore meaningless.
• Cloaking: This deceptive strategy involves presenting visitors and search engines completely different content. The goal is to deceive search engines so they display a URL when it would not otherwise be displayed.
• Invisible text or links: Another common black hat technique is to hide text or links within your content in an effort to improve rankings. Some ways to do this include adding white text on a white background, setting the font size to zero, or burying a link in a small character (e.g., embedding a link in a hyphen).

Keep in mind that these are all referred to as black hat techniques for a reason. They’re incredibly risky to implement and are usually detected sooner or later. Consequently, a site can be banned or penalized with a lower rank.

So what’s the alternative?

White Hat SEO and Why It Pays to Be Good

The most successful brands opt for white hat techniques in their search efforts because the strategy focuses on making your site more visible through quality content and organic link building. Below are some ways you can earn a proverbial white hat:

• Quality content: Creating valuable content for your target audience is typically both share-worthy and link-worthy – two key ingredients in driving traffic. Your content should also be original, highly relevant to your niche, and contains no spelling or grammar errors.
• Effective keyword research and use: Although keyword stuffing is frowned upon, keywords still hold value when used correctly. Your site should be focused on a set of relevant keywords, and you can identify the most effective words by researching keywords or phrases you think people might use to find your site. Keep in mind that single words are not always the most effective target. Long-tail keywords can be much more specific to your product or service and thus be more effective in ranking higher. Using the fireplace example from earlier, a simple search in SEMrush provides a list of words that might be more effective depending on what exactly the product does:

• Relevant Backlinks: Google likes to see links leading back to your site because it’s a vote of confidence. If other sites are linking to you, it means you have quality content and therefore will reap the reward with higher search rankings. Keep in mind, though, that there are good links and bad links, so you want to make sure any off-site links are relevant and offer similar high-quality content.
• Internal Links: Linking to content within your own site is a great indicator that your site has value so long as you don’t overstuff them. A good rule of thumb is two or three links to deep-seeded pages within your site.
• Meta Description: Your site’s meta description is the first couple of sentences that appear in the search results under your page title, and the best ones are actually written for people – not search engines. In other words, they shouldn’t be overstuffed with keywords. Take a look at Fractl’s (my employer) meta description below:

Final Thoughts: Ranking Higher Takes Work and Google Rewards Long-Term Strategies

While white and black hat SEO strategies share a common goal to improve a site’s visibility, they use very different strategies. An advantage in taking a black hat approach is quick, short-term success through increased traffic, but Google penalties are becoming more and more sophisticated and can have devastating effects on your site. Considering “Google it” is a phrase most of us hear every day, can you really afford to be de-indexed?

This is why many marketers are opting for the white hat when entering the wild world of SEO. Although it will take longer to see results, the strategy focuses on improving your search performance through quality content while playing nice with Google – an ally no one can afford to lose.

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